Domino's CEO: 'We've Gotta Pay More' To Hire Good Workers

Add Domino's to the list of companies coming under pressure to raise pay.

"We've gotta pay more to get people right now," Domino's CEO Patrick Doyle said in an appearance on CNBC on Monday morning. "The great news is the economy is moving, it is getting better, it's getting harder to hire people."

Doyle did not announce a broad raise for his company's lowest-paid workers, but other big employers have recently, including McDonald's and Walmart.

More than 90 percent of Domino's stores are owned by franchisees, which set their own pay rates, Doyle pointed out. That leaves only about 400 company-owned Domino's locations.

At those stores, some of which are in New York City, the company is finding it hard to hire the "right" people without paying them more, Doyle said.

"The reality is the labor market is tightening up, and we've got to respond to that," he said.

Walmart announced in February that it was giving raises to about 500,000 workers, raising its baseline pay to $10 an hour by next February. A little over a month later, McDonald's announced it would raise pay by 10 percent for some 90,000 workers at its company-owned stores, which represent a small fraction of all McDonald's restaurants.

According to the jobs site Glassdoor, Domino's delivery drivers make between $7.42 and $7.76 an hour, on average. That's a bit better than the federal minimum wage of $7.25, which hasn't been raised in more than six years. Delivery drivers do get tips to augment their wages, however.

And assistant managers at Domino's do a little better, bringing in about $10.25 an hour, on average, according to Glassdoor.

Doyle earned nearly $7.5 million in total compensation last year, according to a Bloomberg calculation.

A Domino's spokesperson declined to specifically say why Domino's isn't making a company-wide announcement on wages.

"We’re largely a franchised organization, so wage rates are going to vary locally by owner, but we’re confident that we are highly competitive in the market," Tim McIntyre, Domino's vice president of communications, said in an email.